Chris Jericho was recently a guest on the Steve Austin Show podcast. During the podcast, Jericho and Austin started to talk about promos in WWE today. Specifically, they spoke about how Gene Okerlund would lead new wrestlers through backstage promos in WCW.
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Jericho wanted to do something similar with his ‘Highlight Reel’ segment in WWE to help talent who didn’t get much promo time:
“My idea when I started the Highlight Reel was I wanted to be the Gene Okerlund. Have guys come out that didn’t get promo time and let me do an improve promo. Let’s see what they got.”
This was eventually nixed by Vince McMahon who ended up mostly putting main-event stars on the show instead. Jericho also shared his idea on how he would improve promos in WWE today:
“I still think they should do that this day at every show. In between Main Event and Raw, there’s a ten minute period – send somebody out there and you’ve got three minutes, don’t tell anybody who it is during the day, you’d just be like, ‘Xavier Woods, go out there for three minutes.’
‘What am I supposed to talk about?’
‘I don’t know.’ And see what they got. And Woods would kill it, but give somebody else – a Heath Slater, Curt Hawkins, whoever. You would see then who can do a promo and who can connect with the audience. You would get it right like that.”
Would that work?
Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
[h/t to Cageside Seats]